1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program which are capable of automatically developing an algorithm for determining a similarity between a pair of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
To date, a large number of methods for determining a similarity of image data, music data, etc., have been proposed (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2006-285615, 2005-77865).
For example, when a similarity between a plurality of music data is determined, a method, in which a rhythm, a tempo, etc., are extracted from each of the plurality of music data as feature quantities, and the extracted rhythms or tempos are compared with each other, or the like is used.
Also, for example, when a similarity between a plurality of image data is determined, a method, in which a histogram of pixels, etc., is extracted as a feature quantity, and the extracted histograms are compared with each other, or the like is used.
That is to say, in a related-art method of determining a similarity of a plurality of data, it is commonly carried out to extract individual feature quantities from a plurality of data of which a similarity is to be determined, and to compare the extracted feature quantities with each other.
Also, in many cases, the kinds of data, whose specific feature quantity functions effectively in order to determine a similarity, are limited. Thus, when a feature quantity to be extracted is determined in advance, the kind of data whose similarity is to be determined is limited. For example, in the case where a feature quantity is of music data, the target data is limited to music data, and if it is of image data, the target data is limited to image data. Also, a similarity determination is limited to the range that can be expressed by a feature quantity determined by a person at design time. It might be difficult to support the emergence of a new data type in the future, and to support a similarity determination from a new point of view.
As described above, there have been methods of determining a similarity between a pair of data on the basis of a feature quantity designed by a person up to now. However, a proposal has not been made yet on a method of automatically developing a similarity-determination algorithm for determining a similarity between a pair of data by automatically determining what information is extracted as a feature quantity from any kinds of data, such as music data, image data, and the like.